Wewt, Lightroom talky!!
Lightroom is in effect a digital darkroom + a photo management/organisation system. I'll go through some of the things I do, to explain how Lightroom works.
Importing and file management
Initially, I use LR to import the photos off my camera. Lightroom will send the photos to any folder I specify, and even create backups/duplicates for me. For instance, I tell lightroom to also make a copy of the RAW files on my external hard drive. In order to manage your photos, Lightroom creates a small jpeg thumbnail of the RAW file, and places those thumbnails in a catalogue - what you see in the photo library. You can create as many catalogs as you like, and then different collections within them.
Lightroom also allows you to index your photos, through applying tags, star ratings, coloured flags and "picks"/"rejected photos". Even if I didn't use LR to adjust the photos (say I was shooting a sporting event in jpeg, and needed to quickly select and send off photos), I would still have it as a photo management tool.
RAW file adjustment and exporting
For those a little foggy on RAW files; when you take a photo, the camera gets the captured data and applys a preset to it, spitting out a jpeg image. By shooting RAW, you decide to bypass that stage and save exactly what the camera sees. Now in Lightroom, you are essentially making your interpretation of what the camera saw, and how you wanted it to come out. Everything in LR is non-destructive, as what you see is essentially a preview of the exported jpeg image.
I'm not going to go through them all, but you adjust a hell of a lot of the photo parameters. One of the most useful things about it is that you can also adjust the white balance... which is impossible with a jpeg image. I can't saw how many photos I've rescued just by using this feature..
As Kerry mentioned, you are able to export an adjusted image directly to photoshop (as a .tiff copy), edit it in photoshop and have that edited version appear back in lightroom without having to import it again. Tbh, I don't use this feature at all..
Once you have done all of the adjustments, you are able to export the finished images. I usually do them as a jpg, but you are able to export them as PSD's, TIFF files, etc etc. Another great feature is the ability to resize the images, apply group file names, etc.
That, or just export the pics before you adjust them
Lightroom is in effect a digital darkroom + a photo management/organisation system. I'll go through some of the things I do, to explain how Lightroom works.
Importing and file management
Initially, I use LR to import the photos off my camera. Lightroom will send the photos to any folder I specify, and even create backups/duplicates for me. For instance, I tell lightroom to also make a copy of the RAW files on my external hard drive. In order to manage your photos, Lightroom creates a small jpeg thumbnail of the RAW file, and places those thumbnails in a catalogue - what you see in the photo library. You can create as many catalogs as you like, and then different collections within them.
Lightroom also allows you to index your photos, through applying tags, star ratings, coloured flags and "picks"/"rejected photos". Even if I didn't use LR to adjust the photos (say I was shooting a sporting event in jpeg, and needed to quickly select and send off photos), I would still have it as a photo management tool.
RAW file adjustment and exporting
For those a little foggy on RAW files; when you take a photo, the camera gets the captured data and applys a preset to it, spitting out a jpeg image. By shooting RAW, you decide to bypass that stage and save exactly what the camera sees. Now in Lightroom, you are essentially making your interpretation of what the camera saw, and how you wanted it to come out. Everything in LR is non-destructive, as what you see is essentially a preview of the exported jpeg image.
I'm not going to go through them all, but you adjust a hell of a lot of the photo parameters. One of the most useful things about it is that you can also adjust the white balance... which is impossible with a jpeg image. I can't saw how many photos I've rescued just by using this feature..
As Kerry mentioned, you are able to export an adjusted image directly to photoshop (as a .tiff copy), edit it in photoshop and have that edited version appear back in lightroom without having to import it again. Tbh, I don't use this feature at all..
Once you have done all of the adjustments, you are able to export the finished images. I usually do them as a jpg, but you are able to export them as PSD's, TIFF files, etc etc. Another great feature is the ability to resize the images, apply group file names, etc.
In LR1.4 at least, on the left hand pane of the develop area, you can create "snapshots".. which i guess is a record of the adjustments at any one point in time. There is an "import" snapshot by default, so I guess you could create some plugin/action that exports the photos at that snapshot.. ie. with the import/before settings.tazz. wrote:
Is there a way to export the before and after shot?
That, or just export the pics before you adjust them
